Venezuela (2019 onwards)

[davidbfpo]

I have closed the previous Venezuela thread (90k views) since 2006. This thread was in the Whole News arena and has been moved here, with a new title.
The old thread was:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...la-(2006-2018)

[Bill Moore]

https://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/ve...-not-intervene

After their incursions into Georgia and Crimea for non-humanitarian purposes, Russia can take its warning and shove it. That China, Russia, and Iran's leadership support Maduro reinforces the statement in the U.S. National Security Security that today's competition is fundamentally between those who support a free and open internal order and those who seek to impose authoritarian models (China, Russia, Iran, ISIS). Unfortunately, during the early years of the Cold War, the CIA engaged in activites that undermined our credibility as a nation that stood for democratic values and human rights in Latin America. Although the U.S. has learned from those misadventures, distrust lingers on, which will hamper our ability to dominate the narrative if we intervene. Obama's don't do stupid stuff was not a strategy, but it was prudent guidance that should frame future actions. In simple terms, maintaining the high moral ground equates to greater freedom of movement. We have the high moral ground, but are somewhat limited by immoral actions that occcurred decades ago. Step one, regain legitimacy to act with the people in the region by pushing the narrative that this is really is based on promoting freedom, human rights, and averting a humanitarian disaster that China and Russia willingly support.

[AdamG]

Fireball IED Engulfs Police Motorcycle Convoy In Venezuela

https://www.funker530.com/ied-motorc...nvoy-venezuela

[AdamG]

(Bloomberg) -- Late last month, as U.S. officials joined Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido near a bridge in Colombia to send desperately needed aid to the masses and challenge the rule of Nicolas Maduro, some 200 exiled soldiers were checking their weapons and planning to clear the way for the convoy.

Led by retired General Cliver Alcala, who has been living in Colombia, they were going to drive back the Venezuelan national guardsmen blocking the aid on the other side. The plan was stopped by the Colombian government, which learned of it late and feared violent clashes at a highly public event it promised would be peaceful.

Almost no provisions got in that day and hopes that military commanders would abandon Maduro have so far been dashed. Even though Guaido is back in Caracas, recognized by 50 nations as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, the impromptu taking up of arms shows that the push to remove Maduro -- hailed by the U.S. as inevitable -- is growing increasingly chaotic and risky.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/heavily-a...100000331.html

[AdamG]

Six-month old video on Caribbean piracy via Venezuela.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB5s-bf7L1M

[AdamG]

Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido vowed Tuesday to take Nicolas Maduro's place in the presidential palace "very soon," as thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas to protest.

*

Venezuela's state prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, told reporters he would place Guaido under investigation for "his alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Venezuelan electric grid."

It is the first government move against the US-backed Guaido since his return to Venezuela last week after defying a travel ban to visit several allied South American leaders.

- 'Electricity war' -

Maduro has blamed a devastating multi-day blackout plaguing Venezuela on Washington, and declared "victory" in what he called an "electricity war" triggered by the Pentagon.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/guaido-ma...062726034.html

[AdamG]

Socialism at work.

Infectious Diseases Spike amid Venezuela’s Political Turmoil
Scientists say the rise in illnesses is due to a combination of government suppression of research, a lack of disease data and climate change

Venezuela was once a leader in vector-borne disease prevention and control. In 1961 the World Health Organization certified the South American nation as the first in the world to eliminate malaria from the majority of its territory; in fact the WHO used the malaria-eradication program Venezuela developed in the 1950s as a public health model. That and other efforts reduced the prevalence of many vector-borne diseases to manageable levels through the 1990s. But in recent years a confluence of events—some political and economic, others environmental—has reversed these gains.

Here's the take-away.

The review co-authors warn the crisis could spark an epidemic in neighboring countries, as Venezuelans are emigrating by the millions. The authors say Venezuelan migrants suffered 45 and 86 percent of malaria cases in the bordering northern Brazilian municipalities of Pacaraima and Boa Vista, respectively. But it is difficult to ascertain how many migrants may have brought disease with them, and how many were infected after they reached host countries. Co-author Martin Llewellyn, an epidemiologist at the University of Glasgow, acknowledges this uncertainty, and adds his team plans to conduct molecular epidemiology studies to determine the origins of infection.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...tical-turmoil/